One thought at a time

Management ideas come from all over. This week I was reminded of something really important by my swim instructor. The idea - One thought at a time.

Briefly, I have never been a great swimmer. Until about 10 years ago, I had lost any ability to do whatever crawl I knew back in summer camp. Off and on over the years, I've gotten some lessons but most recently I've been working with a really great coach. While I've learned a lot and my form has been improved dramatically, the most key lesson is "one thought at a time".

For those of you who know anything about swimming, you know that there are just tons of things to fixed in your stoke. The problem - too many coaches/instructors try to have you fix multiple things in the same lap. When people have done this to me, I have made minimal progress. My current coach emphasizes over and over the importance of one thought at a time. Whether it is head position, breathing, or the kick, he tells me to pick one thing to work on at a given moment. He acknowledges that while focusing on that one thought other things may stop working. That's ok (as long as you shift focus after a few laps). The key thing - you'll never accomplish anything if you try to improve multiple things at the same time.

Not a profound thought perhaps - just something that I know I should do but don't in so many areas of my life. Even while writing this blog entry, I've surfed the web three times, thought about a client I need to call, and gone through my marketing plan in my head. I know that if I focus, more things happen. Perhaps, if I could find the right "number of laps" for each thing I do, I might get things done faster. One thought at a time.

November 28, 2008 | Email Us

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